Booming Coastal Population At Extreme Storm Risk

A year ago today, Hurricane Sandy slammed the east coast of the United States with up to 90-mph winds and 14-foot storm surges.
The hurricane had been tracking, like most Atlantic hurricanes, northeast along the coast until it collided with a trough of low pressure and took a hard left turn, barreling over New York and New Jersey. The detour, the result of a climate-change induced strong blocking ridge of high pressure over Greenland, caused 900 miles of widespread damage in an area unaccustomed to such violent storms.
Here is a look back at some of the damage wrought by this historic hurricane.

NASA Earth Observatory

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A no gas sign at a gas station on Route 1 in Elizabeth after Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey.

John O'Boyle/Corbis

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People line up to have their gas cans filled with fuel at a gas station on Nov. 1, 2012 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. With power out in many parts of the state and so few stations open in certain areas, gas is in heavy demand for both vehicles and generators.

Christine Schiffner/Corbis

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A resident rides a bike on a flooded street in Hoboken, New Jersey, on Oct. 31, 2012. Hurricane Sandy lashed the U.S. east coast and made a landfall in New Jersey Monday evening, knocking out power for millions and killing at least 64 people.

Marcus Di Paola/Corbis

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Sandbags are seen lining the streets of Lower Manhattan the morning after the flooding from Hurricane Sandy.

Dan Herrick/Corbis

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Scenes from Lower Manhattan the morning after the flooding from Hurricane Sandy.

Dan Herrick/Corbis

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New Yorkers from mid and downtown who are without electricity in their homes, gather to charge their appliances, iPhones and iPads from the electrical outlets and power sources belonging to a little perfume store on West 29th street.

Viviane Moos/Corbis

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The day after "super storm" Sandy, the coastal community of Breezy Point, in Far Rockaway, Queens remains devastated by fire and flooding.

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A crowd of passengers attempts to board an MTA bus at 1st Ave. and 14th St. Bus service had been temporarily suspended due to Hurricane Sandy and began operating on a reduced schedule late Monday afternoon.

Angelo Merendino/Corbis

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The day after "super storm" Sandy, the coastal community of Breezy Point, in Far Rockaway, Queens remains devastated by fire and flooding.

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis

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Heavy surf caused by Hurricane Sandy buckles Ocean Ave on Oct. 30, 2012 in Avalon, New Jersey. The storm has claimed at least 33 lives in the United States, and has caused massive flooding across much of the Atlantic seaboard.
US President Barack Obama has declared the situation a 'major disaster' for large areas of the US East Coast including New York City, with wide spread power outages and significant flooding in parts of the city.

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The day after "super storm" Sandy, the coastal community of Far Rockaway, Queens remains devastated by fire and flooding.

A man watches waves generated from the remnants Hurricane Sandy as they crash into the shoreline of Lake Michigan on Oct. 30, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. Waves up to 25 feet high generated by winds up to 50 miles-per-hour were expected on the lake.

Taxis seen submerged in a flooded street Monday night in Queens Borough of New York.

Corbis

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Flights were disrupted in airports throughout the east coast, with nearly 14,000 cancellations because of the storm, according to the Los Angeles Times.
This photo shows Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington, D.C., nearly deserted.

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Not only were airplanes grounded; trains went idle and metro systems came to a halt in anticipation of the hurricane. As roads became flooded, they were gradually closed down as well.
Waves crash over barriers along a road in Winthrop, Mass.

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Financial markets closed Monday in the wake of the storm. Here, the trading floor of the Chicago Stock Exchange is totally empty.

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Federal and state authorities have been firm in their warnings to the public lying within the storm's path to be prepared, with Sandy commonly being described as a "truly historic event."
The National Weather Service in New Jersey was unusually firm in imploring residents heed evacuation warnings and "think of your loved ones" and "emergency responders who will be unable to reach you."
In this photo, a person stands on the edge of a porch while waves crash higher and higher.

When high tide rolled in to Copaigue, N.Y., Monday, streets and houses, including this partially submerged dwelling, were flooded.

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This family is being rescued in a pickup truck after floodwaters overtook their home in New Jersey.

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High winds and rains damaged this crane on top of a skyscraper in New York. The crane later collapsed.

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Debris is scattered along the streets of Atlantic City, N.J., following a day of pounding by Hurricane Sandy. The state's governor Chris Christie in an emergency declaration ordered the evacuation of 30,000 residents and the shutdown of the state's casinos.

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By nightfall, streets throughout Atlantic City were underwater, as was the case with much of southern New Jersey.

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New York was also particularly hard hit in the first night by Hurricane Sandy's winds and rains.
This gas station in Brooklyn is partially submerged by rising waters.

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An entire wall of this Manhattan house collapsed in the middle of the storm. Emergency responders arrived quickly on the scene.

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Large portions of Lower and Midtown Manhattan lost power due to the storm. One World Trade Center is the sole building illuminated in this photo.
As of early Tuesday morning, nearly five million people in 15 states and the District of Columbia were without electricity as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

Nearly 11 million more Americans will move to the coasts by 2020, putting more of the population at risk from extreme coastal storms, according to a report released yesterday (March 25) by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration. The nation's shorelines already hold the most densely packed communities in the country.

U.S. beaches have 446 people per square mile versus the national average of 105 people per square mile (excluding Alaska), found the NOAA National Coastal Population Report. The population density is six times greater at the coast than inland. (One square mile is about 2.5 square kilometers.)

"The coast is substantially more crowded than the U.S. as a whole," report editor Kristen Crossett, of NOAA's National Ocean Service said in a statement. "And the projected growth in coastal areas will increase population density at a faster rate than the country as a whole."

The coastal population also grew older between 1970 and 2010. During that time, there was an 89 percent increase in people older than 65 and a 4 percent drop in people younger than 18 years old, the report found.

Shoreline communities include those next to oceans, major estuaries and the Great Lakes. As the planet warms, these cities, towns and villages face a double threat of rising sea levels and more severe storms. The oceans are expected to rise up to 6.6 feet (2 meters) by 2100 due to thermal expansion (water expands as it warms) and glacier melt, according to the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international body charged with assessing the future impact of climate change.

Global warming could also result in more extreme coastal storms, such as Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac, which caused severe damage last year, though the number of storms may not change, according to the IPCC and climate scientists.

The population pressures may affect coastal areas, Holly Bamford, assistant NOAA administrator for the National Ocean Service, said in a statement.

"As more people move to the coast, county managers will see a dual challenge: protecting a growing population from coastal hazards, as well as protecting coastal ecosystems from a growing population," Bamford said.

In 2010, 123.3 million people — 39 percent of the U.S. population — lived in shoreline counties, according to the report, which is based on data from the U.S. Census and NOAA. Since 1970, the shoreline population grew by 39 percent.

The number of people living near the nation's watersheds is even larger, NOAA found. A watershed county is an area in which water, sediments and dissolved material drain to a common coastal outlet, like a bay or the ocean.

From 1970 to 2010, the U.S. coastal watershed population increased by 45 percent. In 2010, 52 percent of the U.S. population lived in coastal watershed counties, although these regions account for less than 20 percent of the country's total land area (excluding Alaska).